This invention relates generally to a foldable beach or deck chair and more specifically, to a foldable beach or deck chair having a leg rest that can be manually placed in a stored position beneath the chair seat when not in use or when the chair is folded and brought to an extended generally horizontal position when placed in use.
As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,210, a deck chair having a manually operated leg rest has been developed by the present applicant which can be conveniently operated by a person while seated in the chair. This prior art chair operates quite well in practice, however, the mechanism for controlling the extension and retraction of the leg support unit utilizes two independent guide rails. The linkage for connecting the guide rails to the leg support unit, therefore, contains a rather larger number of interrelated parts.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve deck chairs and, in particular, deck chairs employing retractable leg support units.
It is a further object of the present invention to improve the operation of a retractable leg supporting unit that is attached to a deck chair.
A still further object of the present invention is to reduce the number of component parts needed to operate a retractable leg rest unit that is attached to a foldable deck chair.
Another object of the present invention is to enhance the portability of a foldable deck chair that is equipped with a retractable leg support unit.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by a foldable deck chair that contains a seat and a pair of spaced apart front legs. A pair of support members are rotatably retained in the front legs beneath the seat so that the support members may be rotated between a stored position in parallel alignment with the front legs and a raised position generally extending horizontally in front of the seat. A manually operated drive shaft acts through a linkage mechanism to raise and lower the support members. A frame is slidably contained upon the support members within guideways and is further connected to the linkage mechanism so that the frame moves between a retracted position when the support members are in the stored position and an extended position when the support members are in the raised position.